Is Galway depressing?

Betts

So, I'd love it if anyone would give me a detailed expression of how life is in Galway! I come from a city, so its pretty hard to imagine life in a quiet place like Galway. I keep hearing stereotypes of Galway, like that its suicidally depressing because of all its rain and tiny size. Oh, and hows the shopping, aura, community feel like? I'd appreciate any info! thank you!

Ficheall

Betts wrote: »

So, I'd love it if anyone would give me a detailed expression of how life is in Galway! I come from a city, so its pretty hard to imagine life in a quiet place like Galway. I keep hearing stereotypes of Galway, like that its suicidally depressing because of all its rain and tiny size. Oh, and hows the shopping, aura, community feel like? I'd appreciate any info! thank you!

Life in Galway is terribly relaxed, but if you want to keep busy there are always plenty of things to do. You should slap whatever fool told you that it was suicidally depressing, but it does rain an awful lot. Bring waterproofs. The community in Galway is pretty friendly, given the small size, and you're always bound to bump into someone you know, which isn't always necessarily a good thing, I suppose. The aura is grey during the day, and a sort of orangey-yellow at night.

sconhome

Betts wrote: »

So, I'd love it if anyone would give me a detailed expression of how life is in Galway! I come from a city, so its pretty hard to imagine life in a quiet place like Galway. I keep hearing stereotypes of Galway, like that its suicidally depressing because of all its rain and tiny size. Oh, and hows the shopping, aura, community feel like? I'd appreciate any info! thank you!

Its GREAT!!

leeroybrown

I've rarely ever heard someone being that negative about Galway City. Galway's a great spot. Unless you're someone who needs the hustle and bustle of a massive city it's a great spot. There's a great social scene and if you find clubs and socs in college that you're interested in you'll find plenty to do and meet loads of people.

dvae

Only for Connemara, Galway would be a lovely place.

conamara

Troll Alert!

dvae wrote: »

Only for Connemara, Galway would be a lovely place.

biko

Betts wrote: »

So, I'd love it if anyone would give me a detailed expression of how life is in Galway! I come from a city, so its pretty hard to imagine life in a quiet place like Galway. I keep hearing stereotypes of Galway, like that its suicidally depressing because of all its rain and tiny size. Oh, and hows the shopping, aura, community feel like? I'd appreciate any info! thank you!

I think it's just easier for you to visit one weekend and see for yourself. Whereabouts in Galway are you referring too? You know that Galway city has a large poplulation?

Discodog

It doesn't rain significantly more in Galway than many other cities - it's just that the residents are obsessed with the weather

leeroybrown

Discodog wrote: »

It doesn't rain significantly more in Galway than many other cities - it's just that the residents are obsessed with the weather

The average annual rainfall in Galway is almost twice that of Dublin, London and Edinburgh. It's not exactly tropical or equatorial but I think that does qualify it as relatively wet. It's also year round rain rather than seasonal rain so you don't get a big chunk of it out of the way in two or three months like you do in many other cities.

ValerieR

The weather on the West Coast changes very fast because of the Atlantic and the weather systems. It's often that we get the 4 seasons in the one day and rare enough that it rains the whooooole day ! ...

As far as whether Galway is boring or not ... it all depends on YOU and what you want to make of it. Some people would also find Paris boring ... :rolleyes:

K.C

Moved to galway 9 months ago from Dublin. I love Galway, yes it rains more but who cares. Get out and enjoy it. Great City, lovely people and just good fun. I'm best man for a wedding in January and guess where the stag will be?

Betts

Thank you guys! You've all been a great help! I'm actually looking forward to Galway now.
I really should slap those ignorant fools. I guess the rain will be a huge adjustment since from where I come from (Arizona), it just rains around july. Plus, if it even does rain, it'll just last for about two hours-which means I have some major rain coat shopping to do!

I was wondering, hows the vibe like at NUIG? Eccentric with students somersaulting on the grounds (if its not raining of course)? How bout the professors, rating them from 1 to 10? Sorry for all the questions- its just there aren't a lot of Irish student review sites out there!
Oh, and congrats on being best man K.C.!

Discodog

leeroybrown wrote: »

The average annual rainfall in Galway is almost twice that of Dublin, London and Edinburgh. It's not exactly tropical or equatorial but I think that does qualify it as relatively wet. It's also year round rain rather than seasonal rain so you don't get a big chunk of it out of the way in two or three months like you do in many other cities.

So Galway City is heading for an average of around 35 inches for this very wet year. That's about the same as for Manchester & less than Zurich, New York or Miami. Imagine living in Bergen which gets double our rainfall :eek:

I work outdoors & I have worked in London. The rain here is often fast moving which makes a big difference. In reality it isn't the amount of rain that is depressing but the duration. I remember looking at a rainfall map of the area & the narrow coastal strip on the Galway side of the bay got a lot less rain.

Everyone told me that I was mad to move here. 12 years on I haven't found the rain to be any worse than when I was in the UK.

ssimples09

Every time I've been up to Galway its been great! Seriously good night life..and if you visit during the Galway races there is a serious buzz around the place!

Sergeant

leeroybrown wrote: »

The average annual rainfall in Galway is almost twice that of Dublin, London and Edinburgh. It's not exactly tropical or equatorial but I think that does qualify it as relatively wet. It's also year round rain rather than seasonal rain so you don't get a big chunk of it out of the way in two or three months like you do in many other cities.

As a proud Galwegian I grew up hearing this story about it raining twice as much in Galway as it does up in Dublin. It was almost a badge of honour; us stoic westerners braving the elements, while up in Dublin they went around wearing Scooter t-shirts in November.

I then moved to Dublin, and once I got over my open-mouthed fascination with double-decker buses, I started to observe the weather. And it seemed to rain with almost the exact same frequency, if not quite the the same intensity.

This would be backed up by this report:

http://www.met.ie/publications/Rainfall%20November%202009.pdf

which says that the average rainfall on the west coast is between 1000 and 1250mm per year, while the east coast gets 750 and 1,000 mm. So it's a bit wetter, but nothing too extreme.

super_furry

Galway is a great, great city. In fact it's the only place in Ireland, outside of Dublin, where I think I could live happily.

Caribs

Galway is a great place to live, I moved from Dublin quite a few years ago and have never looked back. Depending on what you are interested in you will always find something to do. To be honest even though logically I know it does rain more here than the East coast you get used to the rain and after a while as long as you have a good raincoat you just get on with it. You even end up becoming optimistic about it - it only rained once on Tuesday, for nearly 12 hours straight mind you

Yedya

For teens there isn't much to do in Galway....its very very boring..which leads to alot of drinking....


It's a nice place to live tho,its not to busy.

kerryjack

Yedya wrote: »

For teens there isn't much to do in Galway....its very very boring..which leads to alot of drinking....


It's a nice place to live tho,its not to busy.

don't give me that crap there is loads to do for teens in galway to name just a few
Rugby
GAA
Soccer
Golf
Cinema
Fishing
Carting
Cycling ClubS
Drama
I am sure i left out a few, but kids will be kids and still go drinking anyway

mosstin

K.C wrote: »

Moved to galway 9 months ago from Dublin. I love Galway, yes it rains more but who cares. Get out and enjoy it. Great City, lovely people and just good fun. I'm best man for a wedding in January and guess where the stag will be?

Prague? I love guessing games. I'm just not very good at them.

Yedya

kerryjack wrote: »

don't give me that crap there is loads to do for teens in galway to name just a few
Rugby
GAA
Soccer
Golf
Cinema
Fishing
Carting
Cycling ClubS
Drama
I am sure i left out a few, but kids will be kids and still go drinking anyway

I play basketball at the weekends thats it,if thats a list of things to do in Galway for teens then it just goes to show...

Not everyone likes soccer/gaa
Carting is way out on the tuam road
Cycling club? really?

mikemac1

Galway is great, the people are friendly, lots of great pubs and places to eat, great sport, lovely walks like Roscam, down by the canals, Nimmo's pier, the prom, far too many roundabouts and murderous traffic issues and I'll say again the people are friendly

It's not like Limerick with their grid pattern in the city centre, driving in Galway is just a nightmare so lose the car if you can get away with it


If that person is bored then that's their own issue.
Some people make their own fun and others will be miserable wherever they go

dinneenp

any city/town can be depressing; depends on the person and their experience.

Galway is small, the city centre is very small but it's got a great vibe/buzz.

Obvioulsy compared to Dublin there's not as many big gigs, events but there's live music most nights etc.

confuseddotcom

I'm loving this Thread. I've always endeavoured to see Galway as having a lot going for it, (for example have always believed that our Islands around us are hidden treasures not talked about as much as they should be,) but never for a second would I have thought that everyone would be on here praising the place. I totally mis-read ye'all and horribly pre-judged that ye'd all come on bashing our lovely city for the few bad-pointers that it has! But, ye've all totally pleasantly surprised me, I saw the Thread Title, and figured it would be a riot in the making, honing in on such things as specifics of areas of habitual drinking etc., and other rackets in the city. And I was waiting and waiting, kept saying I'd give it a day, yesterday no, the previous day no lol, today no! Pretty-much all positive vibes on the go! So kudos to practically everyone that has posted here! Sorry to go o/t, I just think it's really nice to see/read.

ihaddajoin

Betts wrote: »

So, I'd love it if anyone would give me a detailed expression of how life is in Galway! I come from a city, so its pretty hard to imagine life in a quiet place like Galway. I keep hearing stereotypes of Galway, like that its suicidally depressing because of all its rain and tiny size. Oh, and hows the shopping, aura, community feel like? I'd appreciate any info! thank you!

Galway is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. No where in the world beats shop street and the wealth of restaurants and pubs available. You have the galway races, aran islands, the beautiful coastline of Connemara to explore... horse riding, mountaineering, kayaking, beaches, rugged coastlines, beautiful people. I love Galway

I don't find Galway depressing at all but sometimes a little boring and slow paced.

sconhome

Yedya wrote: »

I play basketball at the weekends thats it,if thats a list of things to do in Galway for teens then it just goes to show...

Not everyone likes soccer/gaa
Carting is way out on the tuam road
Cycling club? really?

Plenty of running clubs around the county, there's x3 cycling clubs, swimming pools, junior triathlon club in Loughrea / Kilcornan and senior clubs in Galway (x2), Tuam and Loughrea / Kilcornan.

Summer camps at the gyms, sailing . . tons of stuff.

Back in our day, we were lucky, we had an "outside" to play in all Summer.

yer man!

Yedya wrote: »

For teens there isn't much to do in Galway....its very very boring..which leads to alot of drinking....


It's a nice place to live tho,its not to busy.

And what exactly can you do in Dublin? as a teenager I found that city boring, there's shopping..... yay.

Yedya

Dublin obvisouly has more things to do,airsoft,paintball ect

amphkingwest wrote: »

Plenty of running clubs around the county, there's x3 cycling clubs, swimming pools, junior triathlon club in Loughrea / Kilcornan and senior clubs in Galway (x2), Tuam and Loughrea / Kilcornan.

Summer camps at the gyms, sailing . . tons of stuff.

Back in our day, we were lucky, we had an "outside" to play in all Summer.

Summer camps? lol Im not 14 years old

pat.folan

Galway is not Dublin. It has plenty to do and see but it is a small town. Having said that, Ireland is a small country. Any place is only a few hours drive away. The day to day stuff is just as good if not better here.

We have clean beachs, rivers and lakes, mountains and forests. We have a series of festivals to suit most tastes and the arts in general are well represented. It is a "young" town becasue of the two colleges as regards night life. There is plenty of music though the venues can be on the small side.

Spend a weekend here and decide for yourself. That's the real test of whether you will like it here.

Yedya

Hmmm there isn't plenty of music? Lack of proper gigs and the club promoters are *****

sconhome

Yedya wrote: »

For teens there isn't much to do in Galway....its very very boring..which leads to alot of drinking....

Yedya wrote: »

Summer camps? lol Im not 14 years old

But 14 is a teen age!!

What are you interested in doing?